all made up with nowhere to go

So y'all have seen the Unreal Engine 5 tech demo, right?

I am over here, screaming, because it looks amazing.

I am not the person who wants everything to be photo/hyper-realistic and whatnot but omg this is amazing! I am absolutely blown away by how good it looks. Although I note that we are in 2021, almost 2022(!!), and still can't get water and skin exactly right.

(Also og Matrix Keanu Reeves looks really off - not so much so that it triggers the Uncanny Valley response in me, but you can definitely tell he's not real. I think it may be to do with the eyes, or possibly not enough texturing on his skin? And also the fact that Keanu hasn't looked like that in 22 years ;) )

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In other yt related news, I watched a playthrough of The Hex, which is the previous game by the person who made Inscryption. I did this because there are subtle references to it in Inscryption, so I wanted to see what they were referring to, because until Johnny did their playthrough of Inscryption, I had never even heard of them.

I like the story better, partly because it feels more complete and better explained, but I like the gameplay less than Inscryption's (I dunno, there's just something about the card game mechanics that I really like).

I have a daft theory that involves both games, so I'm going to put it in a spoiler cut below!

( wild speculation, contains spoilers! )

I mean, it's all wild gesticulating, but it was the first thing that came to mind after I was done watching The Hex PT. But that's me, leaping to illogical conclusions whenever I get chance!

1. Yesterday was a bank holiday in the UK, so none of the people I usually watch on yt were streaming. It felt weird, but they are extremely entitled to days off, just like anyone else.

2. I am very sore, thanks to doing the garden yesterday morning. I somehow managed to pull a tendon (I think?) in my right hand, so it's painful when I stretch my thumb and, during the night, I discovered I have a blister on the heel of my palm, wheeeee!

3. Been doing some brush lettering with a really thick brush (size 8), and having hella fun. Also did some doodling, which was also fun.

4a. Please note there is a huge spoiler for s6 of BtVS in the comments! You may also find it potentially triggering - sorry for not warning for this sooner

4b. I sort of picked up my Buffy rewatch where I left off in Jan 2019, because the thought of going back to episode one and working my way through seasons one and two didn't appeal to me*. So I watched the last six episodes of S3, since I couldn't remember exactly where I stopped, and that way if I gave up again, I'd know where I got to for next time. I find it interesting in hindsight that, had the show ended when S3 did, it would have been an okay ending. Everything was wrapped up, and things were moving on. (I also think that it should've stayed cancelled after S5 ended because, while I thought S6 was better than 5, it still wasn't great, and from what I've seen of 7 since, most of that was boring as heck???**)

OPINIONS, I HAS THEM.

Also I did a twitter search to see what I've said about the show in the past (not a lot!), and was intrigued to note that in 2012, I was already beginning to see what a shitty character Xander actually is. Though as I said to ruuger in a comment on one of her posts, I think I'd started to go off him as the seasons progressed, but maybe didn't realise till a LOT later exactly how crappy he is.

Additionally: the more I watch this show, the more I like Cordelia (and the more I hate what happened to her character in Angel).

(OH GOD I'VE JUST SEEN ANOTHER X-MEN REFERENCE WHERE THERE PROBABLY ISN'T ONE re: Willow's arc in S6***)

(I mean, we always assumed Buffy's last name is Summers because of the X-Men, right?)

And: I'd forgotten that Angel is a whole adult! He was 26 when he was turned into a vampire! (this is only relevant because I saw something on twitter (probably) the other complaining about how all the vampires in popular media are teenagers, and honestly who wants to pretend to be a high school student all the time? (which I agree with, but also most of the media I experienced had/has adult vampires so while I get this complaint and agree with it, it's not like stuff doesn't exist)).

5. I don't have a number five, but five things make a list, right?

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*I like them okay, I've just seen them a heck of a lot at this point in time. Um, thanks, Syfy?

**Turns out Joss was content to let his attention to Buffy slide as he was also working on Firefly at the time, and, welp, we all know how THAT turned out.

***In my defence, I haven't seen S6 since it aired, so it never occurred to me till now.

COMICS MEET TOMORROW AND I GET TO GO!!!

*spins*

I have missed these guys so, so much. I should probably tell them that. Yes.

Am going to spend my time either character designing, or resisting the (very strong) urge to draw Namesake fanart (because I definitely want to do at least one pic of Emma, and maaaybe of a couple of the ships I might ship. Two of whom involve the same person GDI. Who I didn't want to care about, but here we are).

Which, uh, yeah. I started over reading Namesake a few days ago, probably close to a week ago at this point. I've just got past where I'd got to before, and am now reading new pages! I have about a year's worth of updates to read before I'm caught up to date.

I remembered a lot more than I thought I would! Which pleased me, because I thought I'd forgotten everything. Everything seemed to happen a lot quicker than I remembered, but I said to mum at one point that it's a bit like the return journey, in that it always goes faster. Alice used to be my favourite character but now she isn't (not because I dislike her - far from it - I just don't like her as intensely as I used to). I considered buying the books, because I can afford them, but I might just get the ebooks for now (as I intend to with Cucumber Quest), as they're cheaper, and the shipping won't be horrific on them (though tbh, I have no idea what shipping rates from Canada to the UK are like. But ebooks for now, I think).

I had sort of forgotten that I like this comic.

It also made me think that, when I'm done rereading Enigma (because why the hell not let's go all out for rereading comics, eh?), I'm going to reread the Thursday Next books, because I haven't read them all, and I own most of them, and I like them a lot.

(Also, you know, they also have a snarky Cheshire cat in. And I am powerless versus snarky cats. Who am I kidding, I'm powerless versus cats full stop).

I seem to have done a lot of rereading this year, but I don't really care. I enjoy rereading books, and at least it means I'm reading, even if it is stuff I'm familiar with.

Anyway, yeah. I have a theory! It is based on accidentally partially spoiling myself for more up to date happenings in Namesake, so if you're not up to date, don't read it (unless, of course, you don't care).

( here be a spoiler and a theory! ) Anyway, I'm going to hold onto this and squeeze it until my expectations are shattered into tiny pieces. Which is likely to happen, because I'm rarely right about stuff like this as it is (see also: my predictions for the Raven Cycle; things I thought about Ladybug, etc etc back to the dawn of time).

I'm going to go and read some more now, and find out just how wrong I am...

I've been thinking about the Raven Cycle too much. I had a fever dream about the story last night. Which I recalled during an intense coughing fit where I think I hacked up half a lung.

And then just now I thought of this (it has spoilers):

( Read more... )

I finished reading Lily Blue, Blue Lily a couple of nights ago. I think I am going to have to read the end again because a) I was tired and b) it is somewhat of a mishmash - as in, I think Ms Stiefvater should've thought a little bit more about her setting and adjusted accordingly.

One thing I do like about these books is that powers just work, and things just are, and that's great. I'm big fan of "How does it work?" "It just does", because not everything needs to be spelt out in minute detail BUT. The one place I feel like that doesn't work is the end of the book ( because spoilers )

Also yeah, I sort of love how ridiculous a certain character is, but that's not the same character we were introduced to a book ago. Also yes I agree with some people who have griped about Malory's presence being pointless (yes, it is, but I kind of love him because he, too, is ridiculous. Also I have a theory about him: ( speculative spoiler! )

On the other hand: Adam :D

One thing I do like about these books is, that while they have two obvious romances in, neither romance takes over the books, and I like that (in fact it's handled in a similar way that Adam and Blue being cute is, and I really like that. I don't always want to read about characters kissing or nearly but not quite having sex all over the place).

I'm totally not getting the Adam/Ronan thing, though. All I'm seeing is a one-sided crush on Ronan's behalf (not that Adam isn't aware of it, however).

I have started rereading though, because I did power through these, and I know I don't give things my full attention when I do that.

(I've been reading through the bad reviews on Goodreads for each book. I found myself agreeing with them for the first book, not at all for the second, but then on the third? Yeah, I could see where those reviews were coming from).

Seriously, though, writers in general: stop describing people as "handsome" or "beautiful" or "attractive" without giving me qualifiers as to why! I mean, I have a fairly good idea of what I think everyone looks like, because there are descriptors, but more often than not, people are described as the above without any follow-up and I [disgusted noise].

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I've started doing German on Duolingo again, and it's making me feel good, because I'm breezing through lessons that I know gave me ridiculous amounts of trouble before (accusative case I am looking at you). Also I remember waaaaay more than I gave myself credit for, and that's great.

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I'm poking the magical girl story. It's poking back, and mostly being daft, but that's OK because I sort of needed a break from traumatised soldiers. (I do love the abominations story, but I'm just not the sort of writer who can work on one thing single-mindedly for a long time).

Funnily enough, here is ursulav talking about not just concentrating on one piece of writing at a time. I swear I did not know this beforehand!